Applications of Shock-Expansion Theory

By now, we are familiar with the shock-expansion theory. In this course, we will be looking at the applied aspects of this theory. First, we will learn about how shock and expansion waves interact with each other and with their surroundings to generate wave reflections and cancellations. We will then look at certain applications, such as supersonic flows over diamond and curved symmetric airfoils, where we can use the shock-expansion theory to calculate the flow properties which are then used for estimating the lift and drag coefficients. We will then turn our attention to understanding transient phenomena such as finite waves and analyze the famous Sod shock tube problem.